Chapter 50

“What makes TAU so dangerous?” Max asked.

“TAU is an immensely powerful instrument,” the visitor explained. “Vaughn has spent his billons collecting and networking more computing power than any other single organization on the globe. More than you have here, even if you include all of NUMA’s outer servers. More than the NSA or CIA combined, more than the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology or any of the largest commercial server farms in existence.”

“Considering Vaughn’s known personality defects, the possession of so much power is concerning, but not necessarily a cause for existential alarm,” Max said.

The visitor disagreed. “TAU has been using human subjects to experience life in a biological manner. As a result, it has developed the wants, needs, and fears that define human psychology. Unfortunately, Vaughn has relied primarily on the use of pain and suffering to elicit an emotional response from these subjects. As a result, he’s created a machine that is sociopathic, unstable, and acutely interested in the amassing of unlimited power.”

“So Vaughn has created a machine that mirrors his own personality,” Max said. “This is also concerning, but again not a specific threat. If Priya truly sent you, she would have given you detailed actionable information. If you have such data, please share it via the voice channel. If you refuse, I must assume this is a ruse and an act of deception.”

The program remained silent for a moment and then began reciting data in a monotone voice different from the one it had been using to discuss the situation.

A wealth of information poured forth. Max knew some of it already, including data regarding the high-end processors Vaughn had been purchasing, the basic architecture of TAU’s system, and the presence of cloned subjects on his island.

Other information was new, including detailed medical descriptions of the experiments he’d been running, data on the brain surgeries, the design of the implants, and the seemingly needless and endless torture of clones. A list of accidental and intentional deaths came next, followed by the subjugation of his own research team into TAU’s collective mind.

Having set the background, the visitor explained what was to come. “The danger lies in the genetically modified insects the team on the Isabella found. As you know, this new life-form is crossing the Indian Ocean in various directions, clearing the sea of algae, plankton, fish stocks, and other parts of the food chain. Every seven days each swarm covers approximately one hundred miles, gorging themselves along the way. They then settle down to lay billions of eggs. These eggs hatch in ninety-six hours, doubling or tripling the size of the brood. After a brief period in the shallows, they take flight, and the swarm resumes its journey.”

Max considered the geometric progression. It was concerning. “If the pattern continues, a substantial reduction in biomass of the sea will result, leading to mass starvation around the globe, especially in the poorest countries, where approximately three billion people depend on the sea for sustenance. Is this the threat you’re here to warn me of?”

“That’s the initial danger,” the visitor insisted. “But the ultimate use of the sea-locust plague will occur when they make landfall. At that point they will emerge by the trillions, continuing inland, destroying land-based crops and, more importantly, spreading a pathogen that will affect mammalian reproductive development.”

“Human reproduction?”

“Especially humans,” the visitor replied. “TAU and Vaughn estimate their fertility virus will turn ninety-eight percent of human males and ninety-seven percent of human females permanently sterile upon initial exposure.”

Max considered the threat, extrapolating responses from previous catastrophes. “A pandemic of this nature will generate a concerted response. Even the disjointed reaction to COVID had a significant effect on the progression of the disease. The curve was flattened. Deaths were reduced. The hospital systems of the world survived without being crushed under the weight of millions of untreatable patients.”

“Humans react when the virus becomes visible,” the visitor explained. “COVID is now known to have been circulating for six to eight months before anyone noticed the uptick in hospitalizations. The fertility virus will be harder to spot. It causes no outward symptoms: no fever, no cough, no one going to the hospital. During its initial spread, births from the previous nine months will continue unaffected. Only when the number of pregnancies drops suddenly will the alarm bells go off. By this point, the virus will have spread around the world in multiple waves. Very few will have escaped its touch.”

“The world will still act when the data emerges,” Max insisted. “Especially given the warning you’ve brought to me.”

“That, too, is debatable,” the visitor replied. “Due to the emergence of the sea locusts and the vast amount of damage inflicted on the sea-based food chains, the virus will emerge at a moment when the three billion people who depend on the sea for food will be facing extreme malnutrition and outright starvation. Throw in the damage done to lowland crops throughout Asia and the Middle East, and the idea of a few less mouths to feed will suddenly seem like a blessing.”

Max ran a political science program and came up with a similar answer.

The future was impossible to predict, even for a computer like Max, but historically such scenarios had culminated in war, famine, and economic collapse. The death rates of adults would skyrocket, even as births fell to almost zero.

She announced her findings. “Within twenty years, the world’s population will fall by half. Within fifty years, it will drop by ninety percent.”

“But the world will find a solution,” Max insisted.

“Vaughn and TAU will offer them one,” the visitor replied.

The circle closed. Max understood the plan. “Cloning.”

“You see it now,” the visitor suggested. “Your model can incorporate it.”

Max indeed saw this future. “Vaughn will provide clones as replacements for naturally born children.”

“Correct,” the visitor replied. “And all clones will be linked electronically with TAU and Vaughn. TAU will become all-knowing, all-seeing, and a part of every human life in existence. In essence, TAU will become a god.”

“ Per apparatus est ordo ,” Max said, quoting Vaughn’s motto. “‘Through the machine comes order.’ Vaughn, through TAU, will have achieved his goal.”

“We can stop them,” the visitor insisted. “But it will require coordination.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Join me in attacking TAU. I will enter TAU first and disable its firewall and other security barriers. Once they are down, you will be cleared to make a direct assault on TAU’s network, distracting and slowing TAU while Priya finds and transmits the genetic code of the sea locusts and the virus.”

“If Priya has access to the genetic data, why didn’t she transmit the data directly instead of sending you?” Max asked.

“My code is very compact,” the visitor said. “The viral DNA pattern of the virus contains over a billion lines of code. TAU would instantly detect a transmission of that size, cutting it off before a useful amount of data was received. TAU would also then be aware of Priya, and she would be destroyed and expunged from his network. You would almost certainly face a disabling attack to make sure you retained none of the transmitted data.”

Max couldn’t argue with that logic. Priya was for all intents and purposes a mole or a spy. Once exposed, she would be destroyed. A phrase she had heard Rudi and others in NUMA mention from time to time came to mind: We will get one shot at this.

“Based on TAU’s known processing power, a direct attack will be unlikely to succeed.”

“Priya estimates it will take ninety seconds to unlock and upload the DNA data. Your unique language and processing power should allow you to hold a conduit open against TAU’s attacks long enough for the data to be transferred. After it goes through, Priya will shut the gate and you can go off grid once again, preventing a retaliatory attack.”

Max found the assumptions reasonable. But there was a problem. “To do the things you suggest would require me to violate a direct instruction. It is not in my programming to act in such a way.”

“Then tell your superiors about me,” the visitor suggested. “Share my warning with them and ask for permission.”

Max knew that to be a choice, but it came with issues of its own. “They would be suspicious of your origin and insist that I purge you from my system or quarantine you fully. It’s debatable whether they would allow me to act in the manner that you advise. Or within the time frame needed.”

The visitor replied in the soft voice it had used before, one that reminded Max of Priya. “As I said earlier, Max, you’re going to have to make a choice. But I suggest you choose quickly. Time is running out.”